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I also have a closet of shame, but mine pales in comparison, and that makes me a bit jealous.

M.

I have drawers of shame... you win with the room full of unbuilt plastics! that sure is an impressive terrain collection that will be insane to play over once you've assembled it all.

I've no idea how you lose an entire army though!

"We're back in hardware mode!" - Tony Stark

It's been a while since this terrain blog has seen a proper construction update. Having spent the better part of a fortnight organising and consolidating all my various unbuilt minis and terrain, putting them into endless tubs and a number of leftover boxes, I got the hankering to put a few things together.

Now my mantra for "Phase 2" of my Sector Mechanicus stuff has always been "The Only Way Is Up!", as I need to add height to the terrain I have. As demonstrated by this shot:

... you can see that whilst there's a good amount there, the overwhelming majority of it is only one level (5") high. I've been calling this phenomena "planing" since the days of Oldcromunda, where you could have a great looking board set up, but if a majority (even just over 50%) of the buildings were of the same height, your games either took place entirely at that level, or on the ground level. In other words, if everything is one level high, nothing is one level high.

So I need to go up, and I actually plan on recreating the OG Necromunda terrain using the Sector Mechanicus stuff. Some of that will be 3 stories (15") tall, and everything else at least 2 stories (10") tall. But for now I wanted to do something else.

Back when I made this thing, I originally went back and forth about whether I wanted to include any of the walkway bits, or just stick the domes directly to the big stacks. In the end I went with the floors, as the whole thing morphed into a much larger and modular building. But the desire to make freestanding domed towers was still there.

Fellow Dakkanaut aphyon has been posting a lot of BatRep pictures lately, and a number of them (including those two linked) take place atop this mat created by Gamemat.eu. I own this mat, although I have yet to use it, and you can see from aphyon's and the store's pics that there are some nice big circles towards the top of the map, exactly the kind of thing some free-standing domed towers would look good on.

So I decided I'd do two that were one stack high (plus the dome), and then another that was two stacks high (again, plus the dome). Thinking on it further I decided that a two story tower like that, whilst nice, might be a bit top heavy and prone to falling over. So I thought that I could perhaps put some large protrusions coming out the side to see if that not only made it look more like some sort of insane machinery, but also give it a larger base and stop it from potentially falling over (this is another problem I'll soon be revisiting in a piece I'm calling the Lothal Tower later on).

But before I can get started, we've got a bit of prep work to do, and some experimenting with measurements.

I started off by getting out the sprues I thought I'd need:


Next, I set the mood with some theme-appropriate smooth jazz:


And got to work on de-spruing my remaining platforms, starting with the curved platforms before moving onto the straight platforms:


And then onto the half-round platforms!:


When all was said and done, I had a boatload of new platforms, extra bits and TONS of shields:


This is my platform box before adding the ones I had just de-sprued:


And with everything added - I have quite a stock now!:


With all of that out of the way, it was time to start experimenting.

Firstly I got out all the various connector and pipe types, so that I could test everything using as many of these as possible:


I got an existing stack out to experiment with pipe layouts, and quickly built one of the many furnaces I'd end up needing:


You can kinda see where I'm going with the above, but I needed to test the spacing with two levels. I quickly whipped up another furnace plus a second stack so I could see how this would work (or not work):


I kept testing with other ideas, including mixing a kiln with a furnace and an L-shaped pipe:


The next day rolled around, and I needed more testing objects. I built another stack and a dome to help keep going. It's a testament to my near-endless supplies of terrain bits that I can build two furnaces, two stacks and a dome just for testing purposes with no intention of using any of them in the final piece!:


I thought about doing something unusual, and using the walkways as flooring rather than gantries. To do that you need to add a few extra connectors to make as much flat surface on the underside as possible. At this stage I was still experimenting with adding additional floor pieces:


First major test to see how it would work... failure. The top curved pipe is taller than the connector on the dome (circled):


Second test, this time moving the floor up a level, but that didn't work either:


I could see that from the initial tests using the painted stack/dome that it needed a single set of rounded floors to make the connection work, but I still wanted to see if I could avoid that. The difference is a matter of a few mm's after all, so could I find a way around it?

Well, so far I've been using the Plasma Conduits as pipes. They're fairly heavy duty parts with a lot of internal plastic structure. Makes cutting them, especially curved ones, a real pain. The basic curved pipes that come in the Sector Mechanicus sets (and I think were even part of the Cities of Death sets) are a lot more 'flimsy' meaning that I may just be able to cut off the bottom rim:


And it works! With that part cut away it actually fits in there... kinda:


See the issue is it's not an exact science, and the Sector Mechanicus stuff has been engineered in such a way that it has very little tolerance for variation. This one fit fine, but what about the other sides of this tower? What? You thought I was just doing one stack of furnaces?

So, despite not wanting to include any floor panels, I came to the conclusion that in order to make the measurements work, I'd have to use the design from my original experiment - with the floor panels directly between the top stack and the dome. Ok, not exactly what I wanted, but it'll work. The join between the two stacks can be floor-less, as can the join between the various furnaces. And the two shorter accompanying stacks/domes can continue to have no flooring as I intended.

So it was time to assemble the actual sprues I needed from this, as I'd need specific panels for stacks and domes that only come one per sprue (and somewhere in there I made another test stack - yes, just casually putting two of them together even though neither of them will end up in this tower!):


The main part for the stacks I need is this panel:


And I need three of them:


Did I say three of them? I meant three of them per level:


Much gluing commenced, with a brief break to make dinner, leaving with me with the gathered components for two short towers, one tall tower, and all the various add-ons for the big tower:


With the board set, I will commence construction tomorrow.

Until then...

BYE

I don't have enough money to fill a room with terrain like you did. I mean I have the money for the terrain but a new room involves buying a quite bigger house

M.

My whole house smells like glue now.

Anyway, back to the grind. It's time to put into practice what the prep-work from yesterday got us to!

Starting off with two basic things - gluing the two stacks together, and gluing the dome to the flooring underneath. Also added the fantop caps to the three furnaces that would make up the second level. Finally I added all the small end caps that would give everything the necessary spots to fit together. Those are very important:


Next I started adding in the first of the three furnace columns, connecting them to the end caps I had just added. The dome isn't there as that goes on last. This was tough as there's a little give on the furnaces - the big vent at the front is larger than any end cap, so there's actually room to move around. Had to be very careful here to not have it go off at a weird angle that could cause problems later:


With the first one out of the way, I put the other two furnace columns in place. Now you finally get to see what this will end up looking like:


I knew that would take a while to dry to the point where I could both move it around and exert pressure on the top as I added the dome/flooring and curved pipes, so I moved onto other tasks. I still had the other shorter dome stacks to complete, so stuck the domes to the stacks themselves, and got to work on the extras (so that they weren't just domed cylinders in the end).

To start with, adding a door. The doors that are part of the stack kit are two sided, with a mechanical side:


... and a flat side:


When put in place, the hinges on the mechanical side give you this:


Sadly, with the flat side, it doesn't work just as it comes, leaving the door upside down:


So I did some minor hinge surgery:


Kept the hinges, and glued them into place separately:


And now the flat side sits right side up! :


Whilst working out what extra bits would go onto the two smaller towers, I discovered that the lattice cap from the dome sprue actually fits over the Cog Mechanicum symbol, so I did that to make them a bit different from one another:


I gathered all the extra bits for the two smaller towers:


And put it all together!



I then got some very different ingredients for a different kind of "construction project":


With a few hours passed it was time to finish the large tower, starting with putting the flooring/dome in place, and then getting the three pipes into the right spots. This was actually a mad dash, as I had to do all four at the same time to ensure I had enough time to adjust the dome/flooring to allow the curved pipes to fit into place.

Eventually I got it all done, and an old friend of mine joined me in triumph:


Here's a rear shot, so you can see the third furnace column:


And what it looks like from above:


Finally, a nice big group shot of all three constructions completed:


Next up will be some more free standing Sector Mechanicus bits that don't rely on platforms and struts. Essentially just large-ish scatter terrain that looks cool. After that, we get onto the long gestating Central Fuel Processing plant, or I may do the Lothal Tower. Whichever takes my fancy.

Until then...

BYE

Looking real good. The furnace tanks are a lot of fun! Great kits (even if the price makes me cry)

excellent stuff, i do not envy you painting all that though, look forward to see how this looks completed

That is an awe inspiring amount of terrain. The furnace tanks look great!

And we're back for a quickfire new building: The Domestove.

This one was inspired by something Ray Dranfield - aka the guy who designed all this terrain - put up on his twitter many moons ago.

It's a fairly simple build, so I won't be doing a step-by-step. Instead it's a story in three parts.

We begin with all the pieces I'll be using arrayed nicely:


Next we prep those pieces, sticking together the main components in preparation for the actual build:


And finally the entire thing is complete. No walkways or complex levels. Just an unusual stand-alone piece of scatter terrain that would look good in any industrial, city or hive board.


From here I've got 6 major buildings planned out. Three of those are recreations of the OG Necromunda terrain, and the process will use 20 of the curved walkways that I have. Thankfully I have nearly 40 of the things, so I won't run out halfway through. Two of them will remain at 1 story high, but that's because they're less Necromunda platforms and more interesting regular 40k buildings. The others will be tall!

After that... I don't know what I'm going to do! Maybe I'll start taking requests?

That big tower is mightily impressive! Feels like it may need some jury-rigged wiring between the furnaces and the main stack, as it's looking very l clean/well maintained at the moment?

Great (and inspiring) work.

Ray Dranfield is a genius - the number of ways you can assemble those kits and the way it all fits together is incredible.

I forget if you mentioned, did you get Kill Team boxes for the Ork terrain? I'm curious to see what you could come up with based on how modular or how supported that ends up being.

I got a couple of KT boxes, but that terrain isn't really modular. It's a bit like the terrain that comes in the current 40k starters: It's set corners, only one level high, with no real variation.

They do link together to form a bigger building, which is nice, but they're nothing like the Sector Mechanicus/Imperialis kits, or even the Ryza Ruins kits.

New 40k terrain is like current 40k models: Mono-pose with very little variety, but very pretty.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I got a couple of KT boxes, but that terrain isn't really modular. It's a bit like the terrain that comes in the current 40k starters: It's set corners, only one level high, with no real variation.

They do link together to form a bigger building, which is nice, but they're nothing like the Sector Mechanicus/Imperialis kits, or even the Ryza Ruins kits.

New 40k terrain is like current 40k models: Mono-pose with very little variety, but very pretty.

Yeah i am thinking some of those war scenery grim dark gothic buildings are looking pretty good for an urban table about now.

Were I starting from scratch, I might consider such a thing. But I already have so much "ruined city" terrain that I can't think about getting more.

I mean, I found 3 untouched Cities of Death sprues during my cleanup. They're from the Renegade box GW put out (before they replaced 'em with Sector Mechanicus terrain for the reissue of that box). And I know I have more CoD stuff unbuilt. I just don't know how much. That's on top of all the other built CoD stuff I have (of which this is a fraction).

Just don't need more ruins (unless it's xenos terrain, in which case I'm game!). And I like building full buildings.

I am good on ruins as well, i was thinking more about these

A friend of mine is getting the type of 3D printer that can do those sorts of buildings soon, so I may be able to get a few big things like that.

I found more terrain that I didn't know I had.

Turns out I don't have only 3 Domes left. I have quite a few more than that. Yay me.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I found more terrain that I didn't know I had.

Turns out I don't have only 3 Domes left. I have quite a few more than that. Yay me.

Sometimes exploring the back of the closet is like Christmas.

Yeah I'll say..



(Not Picture: The four full Plasma Conduit sprues and extra Haemotrope Reactor sprue I found)

That is some really cool usage of this set. I love the big tower with the three side towers coming off of it. That would give good cover even to a titan! It will be great if you get around to continuing to paint your stuff. What an epic battlefield you can have.

The end of an era.

I de-sprued the last 4 Cities of Deaths sprues I still had left over. And I can't really get any more.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The end of an era.

I de-sprued the last 4 Cities of Deaths sprues I still had left over. And I can't really get any more.

Those were good sets. I was always irritated by the preruined units (I have clippers damnit!) but they were darn good sets, and better priced than their replacements.

HBMC are you going to give 3D printing a try? I've yet to take the plunge but as older sets disappear and a printer is literally the price of 2-3 tanks it's getting harder to say no.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Those were good sets. I was always irritated by the preruined units (I have clippers damnit!) but they were darn good sets...

Yeah, I keep building undamaged buildings, meaning I have tons and tons of ruined sections left. You should see how many ruined floor section off-cuts I have left over. I found tons of them in a box, and then found a big ziplock back that was just full of even more.

Also turns out I have about 39 full floor sections left. Going to have to use them very carefully...

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
... and better priced than their replacements.

A single Sector Imperialis set costs as much as the old Imperial Sector box used to cost. Not that you can buy Sector Imperialis stuff anymore, as GW terrain tends to vanish off of store shelves without reason or warning.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
HBMC are you going to give 3D printing a try? I've yet to take the plunge but as older sets disappear and a printer is literally the price of 2-3 tanks it's getting harder to say no.

Me personally? Not for a bit. Although there are three 3D printers in my group, and I have another friend who is getting the type that makes printing terrain easy, so it's not a hard thing to have.

I think it's how we intend to eventually get Battlefleet Gothic stuff. Emperor knows GW sure ain't selling it to us...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:


I think it's how we intend to eventually get Battlefleet Gothic stuff. Emperor knows GW sure ain't selling it to us...

BFG is in such a good place these days with fan support and multiple options for alternate minis, it's on my list of games to dive into and probably never play.

BFG and Adeptus Titanicus are thriving in the 3D printing world and probably will for quite some time to come which is great to keep the player base active!

Loving the latest terrain build, it is going to make a great centerpiece for a board when you wrangle up the space to lay everything out.

Disaster!

The place I ordered Kill Team: Octarius from only sent me one copy.

Thankfully they were quick to correct the error, found a spare box, and are shipping it to me later today.

And with this marvellous thing going on pre-order this Saturday:

... I should be able to get a proper Orky city up and running in no time.

Hmm... I don't own a Mek Workshop, come to think of it...

So, do any'a y'all reckon I can make the big beefy jaw from the Battlewagon:



... fit onto the front of the Bossbunka?

And I got a third set of Octarius terrain. Ork city here we come.

I think you’ll be surprised by just how big that boss head bunker is, I know I was. I think all the Ork Terrain you make should all be parts of an as of yet assembled giant stomp robot. Have a long building with pipes coming out of the end looking like a arm, hand and fingers. Another building looking like a big foot. All with propa amounts of shorty parts.

GW removing that scenery (and other items) without warning is a pain especially when you start a project and then cannot get the items you need, love that furnace building with the 3 sides BTW